Gérard Le Puill
Yesterday afternoon, during a joint press conference, the FNSEA and the Young Farmers announced that peasant demonstrations will resume from November 15 with a view to demanding agricultural prices allowing them to make a living from their work. A warning addressed to the government as the European Commission seeks to ratify a free trade agreement with Mercosur countries which would bring down agricultural prices in Europe.
As we announced yesterday morning here, the FNSEA and Jeunes Agriculteurs unions held a joint press conference yesterday at 4:30 p.m. at the FNSEA headquarters in Paris. Given the unusual schedule, there were few journalists from the daily print media. But the continuous television news channels were very present and the style of intervention of Arnaud Rousseau for the FNSEA, like Pierrick Horel for the young farmers, was different from what it was usually, with short answers to questions from these news channels. From yesterday evening to this morning, BFMTV reported on it numerous times in connection with a field report on the damage caused to crops and soils by last week's bad weather.
From the outset, Arnaud Rousseau warned yesterday that the peasant demonstrations will resume in mid-November “to put pressure” on the government and make known to the country the demands of the profession. This postponement is justified by the two unions due to the delays observed in the corn and sunflower harvests, as well as those experienced by the sowing of winter barley and wheat, without forgetting “sanitary problems on farms” and for which the two unions have “need for short-term responses in the management of health measures. But what breaks the camel's back is the subject of Mercosur and the risk of being flooded by exports. from South America if this agreement is ratified as the Commission wishes, explained Arnaud Rousseau.
The strong opposition of farmers to an EU-Mercosur agreement
The National Bovine Federation (FNB) of the FNSEA represents cattle breeders in beef breeds. She had been the first in recent weeks to express her opposition to this agreement which would bring 99,000 tonnes of South American beef into Europe annually without customs duties. Since then, it has been joined by the National Federation of Milk Producers which also sells animals for slaughter, starting with cull cows and male cattle which are born on dairy farms. As this agreement also provides that 180,000 tonnes of meat poultry, the equivalent of 3.4 million tonnes of corn and 180,000 tonnes of cane sugar will be able to enter Europe each year, if this agreement is signed soon, the FNSEA, Young Farmers and five branch unions of the same FNSEA published a joint text on October 18 to express their opposition to the signing of this agreement.
In France, on October 15, the price of a ton of corn delivered to Creil was €206 compared to €320 on the same date in 2022. As corn stocks are high in silos in the United States, speculators speculate on the downside in the trading rooms. The situation is no better for wheat, a tonne of which cost €222 on October 15, delivered to the port of Rouen for export compared to €335 two years earlier. Concerning wheat, it is mainly imports from Ukraine without customs duties into member countries of the European Union which maintain prices in Europe which do not cover production costs. When we move from cereals to beef, the kilo of carcass of a prim'holsteins cull cow cost €4.23 on October 14 in Cholet compared to €4.40 in October 2023 and €4.80 in October 2022.
Our food sovereignty is under threat
Increasing imports from South America via the signing of this agreement – which was never ratified after its conclusion in 2019 – would have the triple consequence of lowering the prices received by our farmers, making it more difficult to install young people while half of the farm managers are over 50 years old. It would thus set back France's food sovereignty. Due to the drop in yields from an unfavorable climate in 2024, France will export less wheat than in previous years by the 2025 harvest. The same will go for corn. Following the decline in the number of cows of 8% in seven years due to decapitalization due to low prices, the surpluses of beef and dairy products in our trade balance are disappearing. And poultry and sheep meat, France imports much more than it exports. The same goes for fruit and vegetables while the surplus in the wine and spirits sector is decreasing.
Excluding wines and spirits, France's agricultural and food exports now represent only 4.4% of world exports compared to 8% in 2000. This is also why the next peasant demonstrations, which could resume in mid-November, are fully justified; including in the interest of the 68 million consumers in our country.
